


it’s something called love.

by nadatelfanacc



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dancing, Family Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Group Cuddling, Hurt/Comfort, I LOVE TOPH A LOT, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling, Team as Family, The Gaang - Freeform, Toph Beifong and Zuko are Siblings, Toph Beifong-centric, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 04:14:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadatelfanacc/pseuds/nadatelfanacc
Summary: In which, Toph finds the exact thing she’d been missing all her life and now she can’t let it go now that she has it.
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong, Toph Beifong & Katara, Toph Beifong & Sokka, Toph Beifong & Suki, Toph Beifong & The Gaang, Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 13
Kudos: 327





	it’s something called love.

There wasn’t anything more deafening than silence.

No, Toph was sure of it. 

At home, she plays the role of a different person. A quiet, obedient and sweet little girl who seldom emoted or expressed herself at all. A little girl who got ushered away and locked in some dark room whenever guests were over. Nothing that was on her mind ever came out of her mouth, she learned that that was the proper way to be. 

If she ever complained, it would be kept inside her head.

If she ever cried, whether in anger or frustration or sadness because nothing ever felt fair, it was behind a locked door and her tears would be muffled into a pillow so that nobody would hear her. 

If she ever laughed or joked or shrieked too loudly, she’d be shushed. 

She sits inside and listens to whatever is going on outside her window. She hears giggling, stomping and children chattering away with their friends. She feels their hearts beating excitedly as they shrieked with laughter and played a number games with one another.

It made her ache so much that she would eventually have to leave the room. 

Once, when Toph was 7, she stole one of their balls without any of them noticing. It was just a ball after all, but to her it was ironically treasure.

She excitedly went up to her father and asked if he wanted to play a ballgame with her. 

“You have to run with the ball, Daddy,” she explains with glee because she’s listened to her peers play it enough times to understand the game. “And make sure that I don’t catch you! But when I do, it’s your turn to chase me!” 

He doesn’t answer and doesn’t even let her finish. Instead he snatches the ball out of her hands, and she goes from excited, to confused and finally, lonely.

Like usual.

Toph is 12 years old now and she feels like there’s a part of her missing. It’s a nonexistent hole in her chest and everyday it aches more and more. She tries to ignore it, but it gets worst by each passing second. 

For every devoid and lonely dinner with her parents. For the all hours she spends sitting alone in her room in complete silence. And for all the times she’s screaming on the inside but bites her tongue back and keeps quiet for her own sake. 

She vanishes without a trace to caverns inhabited by nuzzling badgermoles, to underground earthbending tournaments with blood, sweat and roaring crowds, and mountaintops where she could bend, scream and release all of her anger without anyone hearing.

Toph feels the power puddling in her tiny hands. And she feels alive for everytime she beats opponents twice and sometimes even thrice her size. The rush in her belly and the pride that swells up everytime she is greeted with a roaring crowd was everything to her. The feeling is overwhelming for her and the big, toothy grin that she wears whenever the crowd screams her name is genuine. 

And in those rare and precious moments, she almost feels complete.

Almost.

And that almost is what frustrates her so much. 

And she’s reminded about that almost everytime she sneaks back into her home and forced to play her role again. To go back to the suffocating silence that she was disturbingly used to at this point. 

In the end, she is a broken toy, not worthy enough to even be acknowledged. Broken things do not have the privilege of being treated like everyone else. 

There is nobody who tells her otherwise, so she sets out to prove them wrong, all on her own. That she defined herself, not her parents, not her blindness, not anything or anyone but herself. 

She can’t and will not be helpless ever again. And she vows to herself this, even when she’s miles away from home on the Avatar’s flying bison, running away from everything she’s ever known, yet feeling strangely relieved. 

————

The first week after she runs away, she goes on an errand run with Aang.

Change really is a funny thing. 

A week ago, she was wondering if she would ever be able to get away from home. She’d dream and fantasize about every scenario she could think of. Running away to the caves and living with the badgermoles was her favorite fantasy yet. 

And now, she’s being pulled by a chatty Avatar into town, humming happily with a grocery list crumpled deep into his pocket. His hand nicely fitted around her wrist and he’s as comfortable with her as he would be with a close friend.

Their mission, given by Katara, is to buy everything that she wrote down on her list but somehow Aang ends up doing everything but that. 

Both of them are chomping on some rice candies that were definitely not on the list (Aang said they were but he’s a bad liar.) when they both stop in front of a crowd. They all stood in a circle around a band and Toph could feel the lively energy coming from them. The loud and upbeat music, the cheering, the laughing and most noticeable of all, the dancing. 

Aang was quick to join in. 

“C’mon, lets go!” He exclaims and Toph doesn’t have anytime to protest.

He grabs her hand and drags her into the middle of the circle. Toph could practically feel the huge smile on his face but all hers wore was bewilderment. And his dancing was anything but calming and smooth. 

“What are you-?”

“Just let it happen.” Aang interrupted with traces of excitement. 

He’s spinning them around, laughing loudly, shuffling his feet rapidly to the beat and singing off key. Toph’s senses are going wild but in a good way; as if she was actually enjoying this. She doesn’t know how to dance, so she leaves all of that to Aang. It was fine, the amused smile on her face was enough to satisfy Aang anyways. She really wasn’t good at hiding facial expressions. 

He sways them and moves to the beat with such ease and grace and couldn’t help but giggle at Toph’s failed attempts at copying him. Her face was strained in concentration, but her moves were clumsy and awkward regardless. Loosening up was foreign to her body, who was instead much too used to being stiff and sturdy 

Eventually, she gave up and resorted to stomping her feet completely off beat. Both of them were sweating and laughing breathily without a care. 

Sure, Aang was a prodigy at dancing compared to her, but his singing had her cringing and wishing that he’d stop. 

“Ohhhhh, don’t fall in love with the traveling girl-“ Aang’s singing was something more like a screech than anything. He couldn’t even finish before Toph reached out and covered his mouth with her hand. 

“Twinkletoes, I swear if you- EW! DID YOU JUST LICK ME?” She withdrew her now wet hand in disgust and wiped it on her tunic, shooting him a scorn. Aang cackled gleefully. 

They don’t realize the time until it’s hours later and it’s completely dark out. And by then, Aang is panicking because how could he have lost track of time like that?

“Oh man, Katara’s gonna kill us....” He complains and Toph lifts a brow.

“..Did we buy anything on the list?”

Aang’s awkward silence answered her question. 

They spend the next twenty minutes scrambling from stall to stall, trying to buy everything that they should’ve bought if they haven’t gotten sidetracked. Toph is sure that they forgot half of everything Katara asked; from what she felt, the list was way too long for the amount they had. 

By the time they’re walking back, it’s mostly silence between them, but not the type of silence Toph was used to. She’s balancing a basket of vegetables on her head while Aang is trotting alongside her, humming the tune they danced to from before. 

It’s nice. Really nice. Worn out from a rather erratic errand run, her eyes narrow down as she sighs and relaxes her, well, everything. 

Aang looks over at her.

“Something on your mind?” He asks with a hint of concern in his voice.

“Nah. Not really.” She lies, shrugging her shoulders. A weak punch then landed on Aang’s shoulder and it barely budged him. 

They arrive back at camp and are both greeted with an exasperated Katara, bombarding them with “Where were you guys?” “We’ve been worried all day!” and “You forgot to buy blah blah blah!”. Aang did nothing but blink at her and chuckle nervously while Toph stared blankly ahead. 

“Next time, I’m going with you guys!” Katara huffs as she packs the food in a sack.

The two just turned to each other and blinked, shrugging their shoulders. 

—————

Toph was the furthest thing from a morning person. She had the hardest time waking up early and the earthbender swore up and down that her hair had a mind of its own. 

Often times, she’d be reduced to an outburst of angry and frustrated yelps and groans when she brushed her hair in the morning. But somehow, this time, she lost her hairbrush.

She didn’t know how, she must’ve dropped it or left it back at their other camp, because it was gone. 

Begrudgingly, she tried using her fingers to brush out her hair. She ended up ripping out more strands than she would’ve liked and somehow made it even more tangled than before. 

Toph cried out in frustration when her fingers became stuck in knotted hair and aggressively tried to pull it out painfully. 

“Toph? What’s going on?” A concerned voice came from above her. 

Katara stuck her head into Toph’s tent and couldn’t help but bite back a giggle at the younger girl. She huffed.

“Nothing.” she grumbled and behind her she could hear the older girl chuckle. “What’s so funny?!” 

“I-it’s nothing, Toph.” Katara stopped herself. “It’s just...your hair...”

The earthbender growled because she knew and certainly didn’t need Katara to point it out. She giggles and Toph feels the waterbender leave fleetingly to go to her tent and then promptly return with a comb in her hand. Approaching Toph, whose sitting on the grass, Katara kneels down behind her and removes her hand from within her hair.

“W-What are you doing?” Toph demands to know.

“Your hair is a mess, Toph. Let me brush it out for you.” She answers, calm and firm. Toph opens her mouth to protest but Katara is already combing her hair gently with the brush. She tenses up, bewildered but at least it beats using her hand.

And Katara was so gentle too, making sure to never pull on her hair too hard and combing out knotted parts until they were silky smooth. 

Still, this feeling is foreign and she doesn’t like it. Something inside of her is telling to to yank away desperately because she’s being helped and she vowed to herself that she would never need such a thing ever again.

Katara stops upon seeing the look on Toph’s face. She looks like she’s in distress and her cheeks are red.

“Toph, you okay?” She puts the brush down and backs up a bit. “I’m not pulling your hair too hard, am I?”

Toph doesn’t know how to respond because one side of her likes the attention. A part deep inside of her has craved for something like this for years, but she hasn’t recognized it yet. 

The other side is screaming please get away from me. 

“Uhhhh..I—“ she ends up stammering out, swallowing a mouthful of saliva down her throat. Katara is looking at her with that soft, concerned look again, she swears it and she hates it. 

She’s pitying you. They’re pitting you. Put a stop to it now.

“I’m fine, it’s nothing.” she finally answers quietly. 

She will suffer in silence if it meant that nobody would even look at her like that ever again.

But Katara, again is so gentle and her presence feels calming when they aren’t squabbling. Combing her hair silky smooth, she then proceeds to part it into three and intertwines the pieces in an unfamiliar pattern. It certainly differed than Toph’s usual bun. 

“What are you doing?” Toph asks, confused.

“I’m braiding it!” The older girl answers cheerfully. “That way, we can match!”

That would be nice, Toph thinks but refuses to say it out loud. 

Toph, still unsure about all of this, lets Katara work her magic, intertwining her hair and crossing over the strands in a seemingly endless process that the earthbender honestly lost track of. And finally, she lifts her hands and ties the braid tightly with a hair tie.

“Tada!” Katara exclaims and Toph could feel that she’s proud of her work. She goes to touch the braid and Katara stops her, telling her that she’ll mess it up if she’s not careful. “Do you like it?” 

Toph gently runs her finger over the groves of her braid. And then, she silently punches Katara in the shoulder with a small smile on her face and leaves the tent before the waterbender could say anything.

Not long after, at breakfast, both Aang and Sokka comment on Toph’s hair, saying that it looked nice on her and joking that now she’s a spitting image of Katara. Toph scowls and denies it over her cold dead body, but she laughs along with them. 

Toph doesn’t confirm to Katara whether or not she liked her hairstyling, but she wore her hair like that until she went to bed later that night. And silently, Toph hoped that she noticed. 

————

“What do you say to the guy who invented the word, ‘zero’?” Sokka turns to Toph with an expectant smile on his face. 

The two of them were alone for the afternoon since Katara and Aang had headed out to run some errands a while ago. They left her with Sokka, who had been talking nonstop ever since and had filled the air with nonsensical chatter. 

“I don’t know.” Toph answers flatly as she picks the dirt out of her toenails. Sokka’s dorky heart is jumping around in excitement in his chest. 

“Thanks for nothing!” He finishes the honestly, horrible pun loudly before bursting into a fit of cackles at his own joke. 

Toph stared blankly ahead, rolling her eyes as he folds on himself, slapping his knee hard. Afterwards, he’s shocked to see that she isn’t laughing with him. 

“C’monnnn, it was funny!”

“No, it wasn’t.” Toph smugly grins. “You’re the opposite of funny.

Sokka scowls.

“Ugh, when do you ever laugh?” Sokka pouts at her. “Is it really only at the expense of others?”

“That’s right!” Toph singsongs, smirking proudly. The older boy narrows his eyes at her with little amusement. 

“Okay, what about this one,”

“Here we go again-“

“Ladies, if he can’t appreciate your fruit jokes, what do you need to do?” His voice undulates for dramatic effect and he’s quite disappointed when Toph simply shrugs.

“You gotta let that mango!” He exclaims once more and has to bite back a laugh so that he doesn’t fall into another giggling fit at his own damn joke again. Dork, Toph thinks to herself. “Huh, how about that one? That one was good, you have to admit!” 

“Clever.” She answers, rubbing her chin. “But, nope!” 

Sokka groans dramatically in frustration and Toph can’t help but smirk because of how mad she’s making him. To her, this was where the real amusement came from because honestly, Sokka’s jokes were godawful. 

Well, the fun was over quickly when he suddenly grabbed her and trapped her in a headlock. And before she could earthbend and crush him with a boulder, he’s tickling her all over her ribs and stomach with his free hand. 

“C’mon, laugh!” He barks out mischievously all while Toph is squirming around in his grip uselessly and trying to do everything but laugh. Her face is as red as fire and Sokka tickles her harder, knowing that he’s getting to her. 

“Pft, ahaha!” An uncharacteristic giggle finally leaves her mouth and suddenly she freezes, blushing harder than before. Sokka stops too and releases her, considering that he got what he wanted. She’s flustered beyond thought all while he’s cackling in triumph beside her.

“Ahhhhhh!” he exclaims. “I got you to laugh! I told you soooo!” He’s whooping and cheering and she pouts like an angry child, stomping the ground hard and encasing him in rock. Now it’s his turn to stop laughing. 

“Hey!” Sokka admonished. “I got you to laugh fair and square!”

“Not fair and square, that doesn’t count!” She retaliates and he rolls his eyes.

“Ughhh!” He groans. “You’re just a sore loser!” He retorts back and she doesn’t say anything as she tenses her shoulders, huffs and stomps away. She ignores him as he’s grunting and groaning behind her, trying to squirm his way uselessly out of his earthy encasement. 

“Hey!” He yells out to her with outrage in his voice. “Let me outta here!”

“Make me!” 

“Ohhh!” He screeches. “When I get outta here, you’re gonna get it!” 

“I’d like to see you try, Snoozles.”

“Oh, it’s on!” She heard him yell from a distance and then she’s gone.

Toph is well aware that Sokka’s yelling out some pretty harsh cusses at her right now, but she ignores him. Instead, she goes a little ways into the forest and plops herself down against a tree, blowing a bang of hair covering her eye.

Later on, she joins them at dinner after Katara and Aang came back. She assumes that Aang had earthbended Sokka out of his encasement and he’d explain the whole situation, because the moment she stepped into view, she could tell that everyone was staring her down.

Nobody said anything, however. Quietly, she scoops out a bowl of food and sits right next to Sokka, eating in silence. 

Sokka inhales and Toph could feel his heartrate stuttering weirdly.

“Toph, I’m sorry about earlier.” He says slowly and with regret and it feels genuine, which makes her own heart ache. “I get it now that you don’t like being touched, and that’s okay. I pushed it and I’m sorry.”

She gulps down a mouthful of food, not answering him. Sokka’s expression turns into that of disappointment and regret for only a second before she puts her bowl aside, lays on the ground and throws her feet in his lap.

He looks at her, confused and not really sure what to say. Eventually, he goes back to finishing his food and Toph doesn’t remove her feet from his lap. 

Sooner or later when they all had to clean up and go to bed, she does let him up. They sit side by side together as they pack up their bowls and eating utensils. Toph reaches over and punches him in the arm.

Sokka smiles awkwardly and raises his eyebrow. 

“You know, you confuse me sometimes.” 

Toph simply smiled smugly in response.

-

Months later, they’re on Ember Island with a brand new addition to their team. 

Quite frankly, Zuko was the complete opposite of what Toph expected. 

From what Sokka, Aang and Katara had told her, Zuko was this big, angry, ruthless and dangerous firebender that was out for their blood. Don’t trust him, Katara would tell her once he joined their little club, he has a lifetime of evil behind him. Don’t go near him when he’s firebending, Sokka would grab her shoulders and lead her away from him whenever he trained Aang, he had zero control over his flame.

It was funny, because her expectations of him was completely blown out of the water when she actually met him. Purely out of curiously, she took some initiative and spent time with the guy. If anyone else did the same, they would know, but if course, they weren’t her. 

They didn’t know that Zuko’s heartrate would spike to abnormal levels everytime someone did so much as shoot him a dirty look. That quiet and stoic demeanor of his was plain anxiety, though he was perceived as standoffish. 

They didn’t know how honestly, painfully awkward Zuko was because they never really tried to hold a conversation with him. She found out, that after much coaxing and trying to get him to talk comfortably for once, that his personal favorite Uncle Iroh joke was “Some of the animals escaped from the zoo! It was OTTER chaos!” 

Point is, he was a dork. 

And there they were, sleeping in Zuko’s home in the lively Ember Island. It’s late at night, and the rest of their gang was more than likely asleep, but Toph’s lucky that she and Zuko had being a night owl in common. 

He’s in the living room, reading through one of his many play scrolls and sipping tea. The room was dimly illuminated by a candle placed right next to Zuko on the armrest as he read. Nevertheless, when he hears her walk in, he merely grunts something incoherent in acknowledgment. 

“Can’t sleep?” He mumbles as she plops down on the couch, laying down and leaning her head on top of his thigh.

“Nah, not really.” 

“Toph.” He says firmly with an undercurrent of annoyance. “Personal space, please?”

“Never heard of her.”

“Ugh, whatever.” He gives up and goes back to reading. 

She’s silent for a while and Zuko believed for a second that she had dozed off and fallen asleep on him. That is, until she tugged at his sleeve.

“Watchu reading?”

“It’s called the Warriors of the Stars.” He answers her as he flips a page. “It’s about two soldiers from opposing nations who fall in love with one another.” 

“I didn’t think you were the type to enjoy love stories.” She snickers and she could feel his body temperature increase subtly in response. Zuko blushed and cleared his throat, neither confirming nor denying her statement. 

“Can you read it to me?” She asks slowly after a while, voice sounding timid. 

“Hm?” 

“Sokka and the others you know, they always forget I can’t read and stuff. They’re always like, ‘Toph! Look at this!’ and I’m like, ‘What’s with you guys?! I’m blind!” She gesticulated wildly while Zuko watched her intently. “But yeah, sometimes I wonder if I’m like, missing out or something. I don’t know! I’m bored!”

Zuko smiles awkwardly at her.

“Okay, okay, I’ll read.” He finally gives in. 

Her eyes widen and she beams at him involuntarily, shifting so that her head rested solely on his lap. Toph made herself comfortable as he flipped to the beginning. 

The first few pages that he reads aloud, his voice is awkward and flat. He’s clearly bashful about the whole ordeal, and she nearly falls asleep on him right there. 

That was, until he really started getting into the story.

Zuko’s voice undulated up and down like a wave, raising his voice loud and booming during climatic scenes and whispering ominously during suspenseful ones. Toph could feel the vibrations of his voice coming from his belly, and they were soothing enough to lull her to sleep. 

“And a sword gleaming with blood ran through his very heart!” His voice bellowed as he gesticulated wildly. Toph smiled under her bangs because she was sure he didn’t even realize what he was doing. 

She almost burst out laughing when he started doing distinct voices for different characters. 

A poorly done rural Earth Kingdom accent for the old farmer, a dramatically dark voice for the commander, a high pitched voice for a little girl, and a gallant and firm voice for the warriors. 

“Mr, can you please share some bread?” Zuko’s voice was pitched up as high as he possibly could go and frankly he sounded completely ridiculous. It took every ounce of willpower in Toph to choke back a laugh. 

“And with his bleeding lover gathered up in his arms,” Zuko’s voice literally shook with sadness as he narrated. Toph sighed and relaxed, enjoying every second of this because even she was getting invested into the characters. 

And sometimes she would add in her own snarky commentary, with her “What? Why would he do that? That’s so stupid!” or “That literally makes no sense.” And everytime, Zuko would shush her angrily before returning to his dramatic style of storytelling. 

Overtime, her investment in the story (More like, her investment in Zuko’s over-the-top narrating. The story to her was corny at best.) was beaten by her need for sleep. Zuko, immersed in his narrating, didn’t notice that Toph was literally fighting to stay awake. 

“‘I love you.’ He whispered softly to him as he laid on the cold dirt, panting,” His voice was low and sad. “‘I love you always and forever, okay?’”

He opened his mouth, about to continue his narration of the scene until he heard a soft snore come from below him. He put down his book and found Toph, fast asleep with her head still resting in his lap. At that point, it was late, and he couldn’t blame her for falling asleep. 

Frankly, he didn’t have the heart to move Toph, so very slowly, he put the book down on the floor, blew out the candle next to him and leaned back into the cushions on the couch. Soon enough, he was overtaken by slumber himself. 

That morning, they’re found by Suki and Katara, whose jaws drops immediately upon seeing them. 

“Oh my goodness.” Suki cooed. “That is adorable.”

“I know.” Katara mouths back with crinkled eyes. 

The girls wait at the doorway for Sokka and Aang to come out and they shush them immediately upon entering, swearing upon the Spirits that if Toph and Zuko were awoken, there would be hell to pay. 

The two however, were blissfully unaware. Toph was dreaming something odd about her friends and her fighting a 400 foot tall platypus-bear, drooling away on Zuko’s lap. Zuko had his head thrown back over the cushions and snored lightly in his sleep that was not for once plagued by nightmares.

And they didn’t wake up until noon when Sokka dropped a bowl of food and shattered it all over the floor.

———

The first few nights after it all happened were sleepless. 

They all agreed to stay in Zuko’s room for the night for a week after the war. Having separate rooms and not being so close to each other at night was much too overwhelming for them.

Some nights, Toph would be curled up next to Katara and Aang and wake up with drool on the back of her tunic from the airbender. Other nights, she’d be resting her head on Zuko’s shoulder as he slept, leeching off of his natural body heat like a warm, comforting blanket. 

She tried to climb into the bed with Sokka, but sleeping in a bed for the first time in forever had her antsy and tossing around for an hour. Luckily, Suki had noticed and groggily invited her to come down to the floor next to her.

“You okay?” The older girl whispered. Toph nodded.

“Yeah. It’s just weird.” Toph answered.

“I know. Not used to beds yet, are you?”

“No, I’m used to sleeping on grass.” 

“Yeah. Floor’s second best unfortunately.”

Suki then patted the spot next to her, coaxing her to lay and down saying something about how she needed a strong earthbender to keep her nightmares away. Toph could just feel the sleepy smile on her face. 

So she lies down comfortably next to the older girl, breathing even and completely still. 

Until it wasn’t. 

Toph feels it again. Or, I suppose, the lack of feeling. Because for her, the disgusting feeling of vulnerability and the darkness that came with it was scarier than anything. She’s there again, dangling from the edge of oblivion and helpless. 

She holding onto nothing but Sokka’s calloused and sweaty hand, senses completely blocked off. Toph can feel nothing but her friend’s nails digging into her palm, the hot smoke rising up from below her and filling her lungs, the sounds of screeching and crashing metal that deafened her. The choking feeling of a sob forcing itself out of her throat as Sokka admits to her that they were going to die, that was it. In that moment, Toph was wondering if Sokka was going to choose how she died. Was he going to drop them (because she knew he wouldn’t let her fall on her own, because he knew that she was terrified of heights) or would he leave them at the mercy of the firebenders? 

She wakes up only two hours later and her heart’s beating in her throat. She sits up, clutching at the blanket and wringing it in her hands. Toph’s breathing feels heavy and raggedy and the lingering panic is still settling in.

She wipes away at her sweaty forehead. The soft snores of her friends rise from all around her, but its still hard to breathe. She can’t focus on anything else but Sokka’s slipping hand and the smoke in her lungs and the sinking pit in forming in her stomach. 

Suki stirs next to her and props herself up with her elbow, facing toward.

“Mhmmmwhazzup?” She mumbles sleepily and it’s clear that she hasn’t fully awakened yet.

“Nothing.” Toph answers back quickly and despite being half asleep, Suki could feel the shakiness in her voice. She rubs her eyes to take a good look at Toph. Face pulled into a panic, shoulders tensed and hands all balled up. She was scared and right now didn’t have the energy to hide it. The older girl frowned sympathetically.

“Did you have a nightmare?” She whispers softly, sitting up next to Toph and squeezing her shoulder.

“No...I don’t know.” Toph answers. Spirits, she was exhausted.

Suki lifts her hand to ruffle her already tangled hair and then pulls her bangs back away from her face, pressing a light kiss to her forehead. Toph feels her breathing slow as she slowly returns to the present time. 

“You’re dreaming about the airship again, aren’t you?” Suki pries. Toph nods and the older girl sighs.

“I know. It was really scary.” She frowns. “Do you wanna talk about it?” 

The earthbender doesn’t respond and instead tries to focus in on Zuko’s loud snoring instead of that, anything but that. Suki realized that she was practically talking to herself at this point.

“Okay.” The older girl exhales. “Okay.” 

She says no more, and they do nothing but sit together in the dark for a while. Sokka’s mumbling something incoherent in his sleep and Katara is outright spooning Aang. The silence between the two awoken girls goes from uncomfortable and menacing to comforting after a while.

Suki keeps her arm loosely around Toph’s shoulders and while the earthbender doesn’t reciprocate it, she hopes Suki knows that she appreciates it. 

And once she felt her breathing slow and her heart stop throbbing, Toph punches Suki in the shoulder weakly before laying back down. The Kyoshi warrior smiles, understanding completely. 

They fall back asleep and as far as they could tell, no nightmare bothered either of them for the rest of the night. 

—

Toph’s 13 and a half now, and she feels that she grew a lot more older than she was at 12. 

The days where they would travel around in the world on Appa and were on the run with large bounties over their heads was long over. They were no longer an unknown, straggly vagabond group of runaways, traitors and broken children. For some reason, Toph missed it. They were important people now and got hero worship wherever they went, but it was different and she wasn’t sure if it was the type of different that was easily adjusted too. 

Right now though, they’re on vacation, taking one measly week away from their responsibilities. Convincing both Zuko and Aang to take a break from their respective duties was one hell of a challenge, but Zuko had his uncle to fill in for him luckily.

It didn’t matter, because right now, they’re relaxing on a warm blanket, right under the stars. They’re practically falling asleep on each other as they lay down together, not really saying much because they don’t need too. 

Sokka and Suki are cuddling each other, sighing contently as they wrap their arms warmly around the other. Zuko laid with his head resting on Katara’s leg as she basically spooned Aang, who was already asleep at that point. Toph laid her head on Zuko’s chest as his arm wraps around her shoulder and ever so lightly brushed her arm occasionally. 

It’s a peaceful night, and they don’t feel like saying anything or doing anything except holding each other close.

Toph feels the grass waving ever so slowly in the cool night wind and the crickets in the dirt chirping away. She feels the steady heartbeats of all her friends, her family, thumping away firmly, but never too fast. She feels her own heart, and the way it beats in her chest.

“Hey guys?” Sokka finally speaks up after minutes of silence. 

“Mhm?”

“Yeah?” 

“I love you.” He says flatly but there’s a trace vulnerability in his voice. Toph feels her throat tighten immediately and Zuko brushes his thumb over her shoulder.

“I love you too.” said back Suki.

“Same here.” Katara followed.

“Mhm.” Zuko had yet to say it back, but it was enough.

Toph didn’t answer back. Nor did she push them away in disgust. Nor did she check Sokka’s heartbeat to see if he was lying, because she knew he was telling the truth. 

And not really unlike Zuko, her silence was enough for them to get the message. 

There was a brightness, a warmth swelling up in her chest that was unfamiliar, but for some reason she accepted it without any hesitation. She figured that the feeling was something called love. She feels it practically radiating off of them like a blinding light, even though they don’t say it. 

Zuko’s snoring softly now, he’s fallen asleep. And Toph closes her eyes too with a soft smile on her face, relaxing into the older boy. Katara’s soft humming wasn’t helping either. 

Zuko brushes his thumb against Toph’s shoulders once more and she’s sure that he doesn’t even realize what he’s doing. She lets out one, final, content and happy sigh before falling asleep right there, surrounded that blanketed by something called love.

Toph is thirteen and a half. She’s the world’s greatest earthbender, the inventor of metalbending, a world leader and a role model.

Those titles didn’t matter in that moment, because she already had everything that she could ever want. 

She had Aang, who danced and laughed and joked with her as if he knew her all his life. There was Katara, who’d she’d do anything for, yet still bicker with her about the tiniest things to no end. And Sokka, whose steady heartbeat managed to keep her grounded even when she was at her most vulnerable. Suki, who kissed her forehead whenever she woke up with her heart beating in her throat from a nightmare and laid next to her so that she could fall back asleep peacefully. And Zuko, who was the biggest pushover in the entire world and let her bully him into giving her piggyback rides and reading stories for her whenever she wanted. 

Toph had everything. And in that moment, she felt like the luckiest person in the entire universe. 

Forget everything she’s ever been through, because for the first time, she realized that the ache she was so familiar with before was gone. She doesn’t know when it disappeared and how she managed to forget about it’s existence in the first place, but it was gone, dissipated, forgotten and replaced by something much warmer. 

She breathes in, taking in the refreshing night air as Zuko’s arm tightens around her in his sleep. 

Nobody said anything more until they woke up the next morning, but that was fine. To Toph, the silence was the most comforting thing she’s felt in a while.


End file.
